The importance of lithium-ion batteries as electrochemical energy stores has increased greatly in recent years. In addition to use in portable devices such as laptops or mobile telephones, attention is also focused in particular on use in electric vehicles (EV). Depending on the configuration of the electric vehicles as a hybrid electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, or an electric vehicle without a supplemental internal combustion engine, the capacity of present battery systems reaches values of approximately 1 kAh to 10 kAh. This corresponds to a stored energy of approximately 3 kWh to 40 kWh.
Reports of uncontrolled overheating, fire, or explosion of laptop batteries indicate the possible risks which may result from lithium-ion batteries in the case of damage to the entire battery system.
The publication DE 10 2005 006 303 A1 discusses a method and a device for monitoring the gassing voltage of accumulators.